Nikitas wrote:F35 is the one Americans are sharing with foreigners, the F22 they are keeping to themselves. That says a lot.
The ideal project would be the system that brings down the F35. A plane which many aerospace engineers describe as a tub.
Stealth technology is seen as the dog's whatnots these days, but those in the know say otherwise.
Not entirely accurate!
The F-22 has a lot of Australian Technology, much of which is very sensitive and secret. Some of the systems for it were designed and are being manufactured in Adelaide. I have seen the facility.
As a result, the RAAF is earmarked for 24 F-22 aircraft which will be used for strategic attack. The idea is to be able to attack a country stealthily on the other side of the globe which they can already do with their F-18 Super Hornets. The obvious reason is for the benefit of North Korea or even possibly China. Australia has always had this capability going back to the F-111 now out of service and it is a Government Defence White paper strategic priority to maintain it.
However, there are still many problems with the F-22. The 100 F35s will be in service before the first F-22 arrives in Australia. Some will have arrester hooks for carrier landings which suggests that the Canbera Class will be upgraded in a few years to carry them.
The F-35 is state of the art and about a third of the price for each F22. The F22 is really not required for Greece. For Australia it is more relevant because of its defence ties with Japan and South Korea.
Because of the issues with the F-22, about 24 EA-18G Growlers have been delivered to the RAAF in the interim which is extremely badass stuff! Only 2 countries operate Growlers in the world, USA and Australia.
Just to put things into perspective, the USA will purchase about 1500 F-35 aircraft and only about 250 F-22 aircraft. Australia will get about 24 F-22s.
No other country has put their hand up for it. I believe it could be sold to certain countries but not all. The technology will probably not ever be sold to either Greece or Turkey because both countries are viewed as unstable and have close relations with Putin.
Greece certainly won't get it for as long as Tsipras is in power because he tried to negotiate a deal with Russia a few weeks ago. It's understandable that he would try to do that, but their would be security concerns no doubt.
